Penny Arcade Expo
Encyclopedia
The Penny Arcade Expo is a semi-annual gamer festival held in Seattle and Boston
. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins
and Mike Krahulik
, the authors of the Penny Arcade
webcomic
, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console game
rs, computer gamers
, and tabletop game
rs.
Created in 2004, PAX has been hailed as a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths from independent and major game developers and publishers, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas. Every PAX also features the Omegathon, a weekend long tournament of randomly selected attendees competing for a grand prize. The final round makes up the show's closing ceremony; past games for the final round have included Tetris
, Pong
, Halo 3
, and Skee ball
.
After many successful years of PAX, in 2010 the first PAX East was held in Boston, MA, with attendance levels that rivaled those of PAX 2009. From then on, the Washington conventions were referred to as PAX Prime in order to avoid confusion between the two.
On April 12, 2004, the authors of Penny Arcade announced PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo. PAX 2004 was a two-day event held at the Meydenbauer Center
in Bellevue, Washington
from August 28 to August 29, 2004, which they hoped would turn into an annual event. Several exhibitors, including Microsoft
, Rooster Teeth and Ubisoft
, showcased videos and playable demos of their upcoming games at PAX 2004. Microsoft allowed attendees to experience a multiplayer level of Halo 2
months before it hit stores in addition to a number of other Xbox games, while Ubisoft showed Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
, Ghost Recon 2
and two other titles.
Included amongst the events of the first PAX were live musical performances by bands including The Minibosses
, panels featuring Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins as well as others in the video game industry, and the Omegathon, a contest where twenty contestants played a series of games for a chance at winning an excessively large video game collection worth in excess of $25,000.
The contestants competed in a tabletop dice game called Diceland
, Halo
(Xbox
), Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
(GameCube
), Dance Dance Revolution
, Doom (PC) and the original home version of Pong
. Sean Celaya defeated Kevin Potter in the final round to take home the grand prize becoming the PAX 2004 Omegathon champion.
Penny Arcade claimed that precisely 1337
people pre-registered, to which Holkins mused, "though I ordinarily shun leet-speak that number clearly implies the blessing of gaming deities."http://www.penny-arcade.com/2004/08/27 All told, about 3,300 people attended the event.
in Bellevue, Washington, where the first PAX was held. PAX 2005, unlike its predecessor, occupied the entire center, effectively doubling the usable floor space. Sponsors included Nintendo
, Sony
, Microsoft, Ubisoft and NCsoft
, among others.
Musical guests included the rock groups The Minibosses and The Neskimos, self-professed "professional hardcore gangster rapper" mc chris
, pianists Martin Leung
and Connie Lin, nerdcore hiphopper MC Frontalot
, and rap/funk group Optimus Rhyme
, who performed live in two separate concerts in a massive theater.
Events from PAX 2004 such as Pitch Your Game Idea, Red vs. Blue
, a screening of the 1989 film 'The Wizard
', and Penny Arcade Q&A made encore appearances. New events included Beat The Pros and industry panels on online gaming, the videogame marketing process, and controversy in the industry.
Omegathon II was an even more elaborate affair than its predecessor. Krahulik said that, "[At PAX 2005] we will deliver an even bigger prize to the winner of the Omegathon." It was revealed that prize would be the complete NES video game library, with a claimed value of at least $10,099.99. The prize was locked in a large cage in the exhibition room and also included two Star Wars
-themed Alienware
gaming PCs, one of which would go to the winner and the other to the runner-up. Contestants competed in the tabletop game Diceland
, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
, Katamari Damacy
, Karaoke Revolution
, Quake, and the Atari 2600
game Combat
. In a four-round match, Luke "Coreside" Armstrong defeated Will "LeRoy" Garroutte by a single point to win the best-of-three series 2-1-1 and take home the grand prize. In total, more than 9,000 gamers attended PAX 2005, almost triple the previous year's attendance.
In response to Hurricane Katrina
, Penny Arcade auctioned off the original pencil sketch of the PAX 2005 program cover on eBay with the profit to be given to the American Red Cross. It was sold to Christian Boggs for the final price of $8,700. Mr. Boggs also placed the winning bid of $20,000 on an auction to appear in a Penny Arcade comic strip at the 2005 Child's Play Charity
Dinner.
, Microsoft
, Ubisoft
, Turbine Inc, Technomancer Press, NCSoft
, Rooster Teeth Productions
, Creative Labs, Wizards of the Coast
, and nVidia
. Because they applied one month before PAX 2006, Sony
was unable to attend, as exhibitor space was also sold out. According to Krahulik, there were 19,323 attendees.
In the Omegathon, returning Omeganaut Will "LeRoy" Garroutte defeated David "Davertron" Davis in the final round of the Omegathon: head to head Tetris. LeRoy took away a brand new Scion car fully loaded with custom wheels, custom sound, LCD tv, Xbox 360 Premium, wireless controllers, and more. Davertron left with an Xbox 360 Premium and $500 Best Buy gift card, and returned as an Omeganaut in 2007.
Holkins and PA business manager Robert Khoo
led the way into Omegathon Round 5, Guitar Hero II. After playing through "Trippin on a Hole In a Paper Heart" on expert, Holkins smashed the guitar on stage.
Krahulik and Holkins announced the first ever Penny Arcade video game. Titled "On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One", (which has since been released) and that the game would feature PA characters in episodic adventures. Details were few; when asked what the game was about, Holkins replied "Gabe. Tycho. And Cthulhu."
Krahulik and Holkins also announced a Penny Arcade annual scholarship, wherein one applicant with an intention to work in the game industry will be awarded $10,000 toward tuition expenses.
Several game companies ran large prize tournaments and giveaways, including ArenaNet ($10,000 prize tourney), TableStar ($2,500 prize tourney), and Nvidia (several thousand dollars' worth of video cards).
, more than doubling the space used to house PAX 2006. The massive Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was heavily downsized in 2006, which allowed the growing Penny Arcade Expo to become the biggest gamer festival in North America. Headliners for 2007’s PAX included Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony
, as well as others such as Ubisoft, NCSoft
, THQ
, Wizards of the Coast
, Namco-Bandai, Vivendi
, Konami
and 45 other game publishers and developers. The 2007 keynote speech was delivered by Wil Wheaton
.
Attendance was reported at 39,000. For the final round of the Omegathon, Ryan "Accalon" Zack and Ben "MNC Dover" Gray competed on never before seen levels of Halo 3
. Accalon won the grand prize, $5000 and a trip to the Tokyo Game Show
.
While the convention was housed on three of the floors of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
, the exhibition hall was certainly a busy place, featuring educational, video game and tabletop exhibitors, as well as retailers. The layout of the exhibition hall allowed visitors to peruse through a variety of displays, offering places where they could win their weight in Ramen noodles or enter the World's Smallest Dungeon, as hosted by Technomancer Press.
, and covered the weekend of August 29–31. The exhibition hall space was doubled from that of 2007, and tabletop gaming and an additional panel room was located in the Pike Street Annex of the convention center, the first time this space has been used for PAX. Also new for 2008 was the "PAX 10", a judged selection of self-submitted independent games on which attendees voted for a favorite. PAX 10 selections include Chronotron
, the Maw
, and Schizoid
. To account for crowds, one empty exhibition room was explicitly reserved for the purpose of holding queues for the popular events in the main theater and other queues as needed. The 2008 keynote was delivered by Ken Levine.
PAX 2008 came to a close with Fallout and Geko playing Vs. Excitebike, again for $5000 and a trip to the Tokyo Game Show
. Geko was victorious.
The pre-show attendance estimate was 45,000, but this was soon feared to be a low guess. The final count of tickets sold was reported as 58,500, including 45,000 pre-registered tickets. Despite the large increase in convention space, overflow still occurred at some events.
. Musical guests included previous performers Anamanaguchi
, Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton
, Molly Lewis
and MC Frontalot
, along with first-time PAX appearances by Metroid Metal and Paul & Storm.
For the first time, PAX occupied the entire convention center to accommodate an increase in attendees. Despite the increase in capacity, two days before the start of the show, PAX passes were sold out for the first time. Penny Arcade then announced that no passes would be sold on-site, however circumstances allowed on-site sales of 1,000 extra one-day passes each for Saturday and Sunday. The total attendance of the 2009 convention was 60,750.
After many attendees reported feeling sick, an H1N1
outbreak was later confirmed. At least 100 cases of H1N1
virus infections were confirmed in attendees after the convention.
in Boston, Massachusetts. A partnership was arranged with Reed Exhibitions to handle the logistics of the expo. This event, first announced in August 2008, was the first Penny Arcade Expo outside Washington state.
On December 23, 2009, Mike Krahulik
announced that the number of pre-registrants indicate PAX East Coast may exceed the number of attendees of any previous PAX. It was later announced in January 2010 that tickets for PAX East were close to selling out, and that attendance would most likely be capped as the previous PAX 2009, leaving little-to-no tickets being available at the door for the event. On February 3, 2010 Penny Arcade Expo's business head Robert Khoo updated his Twitter page with word that 3-day badges had sold out for the event.
Later in February 2010 the lineup of exhibitors and panel discussions were announced for the full weekend, along with the announcement of the musical guests planned to perform at the event, such as Anamanaguchi, Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, The Protomen
, the Video Game Orchestra
, and Jonathan Coulton. The keynote speaker was also announced to be Wil Wheaton
, who had previously given the keynote at PAX Prime 2007.
The final attendance count was revealed to be 52,290 attendees for the full weekend of PAX East. Plans have been confirmed to use the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
(BCEC) for future PAX East conventions, likely due to complaints of overcrowding and cramped event halls at the much smaller Hynes Convention Center. Penny Arcade has signed an agreement to keep the show in Boston through 2013.
, normally the venue for the Seattle Symphony
and other fine performance arts. The keynote was given by Warren Spector
. The newly renovated Pike St. Annex (since renamed to The Conference Center) will again be used (as it was in 2007), as well as registration and one panel room located at the nearby Sheraton. These changes have allowed PAX 2010's expo hall to double in size over 2009. Attendance for this year's PAX was reported at 67,600, compared to PAX 2009's 60,750.
Notable games:
Notable hardware:
, but in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
, or BCEC, in Boston, Massachusetts. The BCEC boasts a total area of 516000 square feet (47,938 m²), over the Hynes' 193000 square feet (17,930.3 m²) [289100 square feet (26,858.3 m²) including the theater and meeting rooms].
The year's musical guests included Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Metroid Metal, Paul and Storm, The Protomen, and the Video Game Orchestra (VGO). The keynote speaker was Jane McGonigal
.
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins
Jerry Holkins
Keith Gerald "Jerry" Holkins né Parkinson is the writer of the webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals...
and Mike Krahulik
Mike Krahulik
Mike Krahulik is the artist for the popular webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder with Jerry Holkins of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. He goes by the online moniker "Jon Gabriel" or "Gabe"...
, the authors of the Penny Arcade
Penny Arcade (webcomic)
Penny Arcade is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic...
webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console game
Console game
A console game is a form of interactive multimedia used for entertainment. The game consists of manipulable images generated by a video game console, and displayed on a television or similar audio-video system. The game itself is usually controlled and manipulated using a handheld device connected...
rs, computer gamers
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
, and tabletop game
Tabletop game
Tabletop game is a general term used to refer to board games, card games, dice games, miniatures wargames, tile-based games and other games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface...
rs.
Created in 2004, PAX has been hailed as a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths from independent and major game developers and publishers, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas. Every PAX also features the Omegathon, a weekend long tournament of randomly selected attendees competing for a grand prize. The final round makes up the show's closing ceremony; past games for the final round have included Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
, Halo 3
Halo 3
Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the Halo franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2...
, and Skee ball
Skee ball
Skee ball is a common arcade game and one of the first redemption games. It is similar to bowling except it is played on an inclined lane and the player aims to get the ball to fall into a hole rather than knock down pins...
.
After many successful years of PAX, in 2010 the first PAX East was held in Boston, MA, with attendance levels that rivaled those of PAX 2009. From then on, the Washington conventions were referred to as PAX Prime in order to avoid confusion between the two.
PAX 2004
Meydenbauer Center
Meydenbauer Center is a convention center in Bellevue, Washington. It is a prominent landmark from nearby Interstate 405 . The center opened in 1993. It has a fully carpeted and recently renovated exhibition hall, a meeting room, a 410 seat performing arts theatre which can also host business...
in Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
from August 28 to August 29, 2004, which they hoped would turn into an annual event. Several exhibitors, including Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Rooster Teeth and Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
, showcased videos and playable demos of their upcoming games at PAX 2004. Microsoft allowed attendees to experience a multiplayer level of Halo 2
Halo 2
Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved...
months before it hit stores in addition to a number of other Xbox games, while Ubisoft showed Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a critically acclaimed action-adventure stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft. Chaos Theory is the third game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by writer Tom Clancy....
, Ghost Recon 2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 is the third console installment in the popular Ghost Recon tactical shooter video game series, published by Ubisoft. It is a sequel to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon....
and two other titles.
Included amongst the events of the first PAX were live musical performances by bands including The Minibosses
The Minibosses
Minibosses is an independent progressive rock/progressive metal band originally from Northampton, Massachusetts and currently located in Phoenix, Arizona. They are known for their video game music covers, which are instrumental rock variations of the theme music from classic Nintendo video games...
, panels featuring Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins as well as others in the video game industry, and the Omegathon, a contest where twenty contestants played a series of games for a chance at winning an excessively large video game collection worth in excess of $25,000.
The contestants competed in a tabletop dice game called Diceland
Diceland (dice game)
Diceland is a tabletop game played with collectible sets of dice designed by Toivo Rovainen and James Ernest and released in 2002 by Cheapass Games.Players roll paper cut-out octahedral dice into a combat arena....
, Halo
Halo (video game series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
(Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
), Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a racing game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. The game is the fourth installment in the Mario Kart series, following Mario Kart: Super Circuit from 2001...
(GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
), Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...
, Doom (PC) and the original home version of Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
. Sean Celaya defeated Kevin Potter in the final round to take home the grand prize becoming the PAX 2004 Omegathon champion.
Penny Arcade claimed that precisely 1337
Leet
Leet , also known as eleet or leetspeak, is an alternative alphabet for the English language that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters...
people pre-registered, to which Holkins mused, "though I ordinarily shun leet-speak that number clearly implies the blessing of gaming deities."http://www.penny-arcade.com/2004/08/27 All told, about 3,300 people attended the event.
PAX 2005
PAX 2005 took place from August 26 to August 28, 2005 at the Meydenbauer CenterMeydenbauer Center
Meydenbauer Center is a convention center in Bellevue, Washington. It is a prominent landmark from nearby Interstate 405 . The center opened in 1993. It has a fully carpeted and recently renovated exhibition hall, a meeting room, a 410 seat performing arts theatre which can also host business...
in Bellevue, Washington, where the first PAX was held. PAX 2005, unlike its predecessor, occupied the entire center, effectively doubling the usable floor space. Sponsors included Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Microsoft, Ubisoft and NCsoft
NCsoft
NCsoft is a South Korea-based online video game company, which has published massively multiplayer online role-playing games including Lineage, City of Heroes, Wildstar, Exteel, Guild Wars and Aion.-History:...
, among others.
Musical guests included the rock groups The Minibosses and The Neskimos, self-professed "professional hardcore gangster rapper" mc chris
Mc chris
mc chris is an American rapper, voice actor, writer and improvisational comedian....
, pianists Martin Leung
Video Game Pianist
Martin Leung, also known as the Video Game Pianist or the Blindfolded Pianist, is one of the first pianists to gain worldwide recognition for playing popular video game music on the piano, both in concert venues and in online videos....
and Connie Lin, nerdcore hiphopper MC Frontalot
MC Frontalot
Damian Hess , better known by stage name MC Frontalot, is a Brooklyn-based hip hop musician and self-proclaimed "world's 579th greatest rapper". He is best known in nerdcore hip hop and video game culture, for naming the nerdcore subgenre, and performing at Penny Arcades annual Penny Arcade Expo...
, and rap/funk group Optimus Rhyme
Optimus Rhyme
Optimus Rhyme was a hip hop group from Seattle, Washington. Optimus Rhyme is most widely considered a nerdcore hip hop group because of the nerdy nature of their lyrics. The name of the band as well as the stage names of the members and a majority of their lyrics refer to the Transformers...
, who performed live in two separate concerts in a massive theater.
Events from PAX 2004 such as Pitch Your Game Idea, Red vs. Blue
Red vs. Blue
Red vs. Blue, often abbreviated as RvB, is a set of related comic science fiction video series created by Rooster Teeth Productions and distributed through the Internet and on DVD...
, a screening of the 1989 film 'The Wizard
The Wizard (film)
The Wizard is a 1989 adventure dramedy film starring Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, and Jenny Lewis...
', and Penny Arcade Q&A made encore appearances. New events included Beat The Pros and industry panels on online gaming, the videogame marketing process, and controversy in the industry.
Omegathon II was an even more elaborate affair than its predecessor. Krahulik said that, "[At PAX 2005] we will deliver an even bigger prize to the winner of the Omegathon." It was revealed that prize would be the complete NES video game library, with a claimed value of at least $10,099.99. The prize was locked in a large cage in the exhibition room and also included two Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
-themed Alienware
Alienware
Alienware is an American computer hardware subsidary of Dell, Inc. It mainly assembles third party components into desktops and laptops with custom enclosures for high-performance gaming. These products also support graphically intense applications such as video editing, simulation, and audio editing...
gaming PCs, one of which would go to the winner and the other to the runner-up. Contestants competed in the tabletop game Diceland
Diceland (dice game)
Diceland is a tabletop game played with collectible sets of dice designed by Toivo Rovainen and James Ernest and released in 2002 by Cheapass Games.Players roll paper cut-out octahedral dice into a combat arena....
, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a racing game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. The game is the fourth installment in the Mario Kart series, following Mario Kart: Super Circuit from 2001...
, Katamari Damacy
Katamari Damacy
Katamari Damacy is a third-person puzzle-action video game that is published and developed by Namco for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was first released in Japan, and then later in South Korea and North America...
, Karaoke Revolution
Karaoke Revolution
Karaoke Revolution and its many sequels are video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix Music Systems and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games. The Original Concept for Karaoke Revolution was...
, Quake, and the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
game Combat
Combat (video game)
Combat is an early video game by Atari for the Atari 2600. It was released as one of the nine launch titles for the system in October 1977, and was included in the box with the system from its introduction until 1982...
. In a four-round match, Luke "Coreside" Armstrong defeated Will "LeRoy" Garroutte by a single point to win the best-of-three series 2-1-1 and take home the grand prize. In total, more than 9,000 gamers attended PAX 2005, almost triple the previous year's attendance.
In response to Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, Penny Arcade auctioned off the original pencil sketch of the PAX 2005 program cover on eBay with the profit to be given to the American Red Cross. It was sold to Christian Boggs for the final price of $8,700. Mr. Boggs also placed the winning bid of $20,000 on an auction to appear in a Penny Arcade comic strip at the 2005 Child's Play Charity
Child's Play (charity)
Child's Play is a charitable organization founded by the authors of the popular computer and video games-based webcomic Penny Arcade that organizes worldwide toy drives to children's hospitals. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins founded Child's Play in 2003 to improve the lives of sick children by...
Dinner.
PAX 2006
PAX 2006 was held from August 25 to August 27, 2006. The Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue was again used as the venue, although the Tabletop Gaming area was moved offsite to the ballrooms at the nearby Red Lion hotel. Exhibit space at PAX 06 completely sold out in less than three months, with exhibitors including NintendoNintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
, Turbine Inc, Technomancer Press, NCSoft
NCsoft
NCsoft is a South Korea-based online video game company, which has published massively multiplayer online role-playing games including Lineage, City of Heroes, Wildstar, Exteel, Guild Wars and Aion.-History:...
, Rooster Teeth Productions
Rooster Teeth Productions
Rooster Teeth Productions is a production group from Austin, Texas that specializes in the creation of live action shorts, animated peices and machinima, or films created using real-time, interactive engines from computer and video games. The name Rooster Teeth is a euphemism for Cockbite, an...
, Creative Labs, Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, and nVidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
. Because they applied one month before PAX 2006, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
was unable to attend, as exhibitor space was also sold out. According to Krahulik, there were 19,323 attendees.
Holkins and PA business manager Robert Khoo
Robert Khoo
Robert Khoo is the "President of Operations and Business Development" of Penny Arcade, but is also referenced as the "Business Manager" for the company and the Show Director for PAX, the largest consumer gaming show in the United States...
led the way into Omegathon Round 5, Guitar Hero II. After playing through "Trippin on a Hole In a Paper Heart" on expert, Holkins smashed the guitar on stage.
Krahulik and Holkins announced the first ever Penny Arcade video game. Titled "On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One", (which has since been released) and that the game would feature PA characters in episodic adventures. Details were few; when asked what the game was about, Holkins replied "Gabe. Tycho. And Cthulhu."
Krahulik and Holkins also announced a Penny Arcade annual scholarship, wherein one applicant with an intention to work in the game industry will be awarded $10,000 toward tuition expenses.
Several game companies ran large prize tournaments and giveaways, including ArenaNet ($10,000 prize tourney), TableStar ($2,500 prize tourney), and Nvidia (several thousand dollars' worth of video cards).
PAX 2007
The fourth annual Penny Arcade Expo took place August 24 to August 27, 2007, and experienced its first year within the confines of the 130000 square feet (12,077.4 m²) of the Washington State Convention and Trade CenterWashington State Convention and Trade Center
The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center located next to and over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. Planning for its construction began in 1982; construction began in 1985, and the center opened on June 18, 1988. An expansion that doubled...
, more than doubling the space used to house PAX 2006. The massive Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was heavily downsized in 2006, which allowed the growing Penny Arcade Expo to become the biggest gamer festival in North America. Headliners for 2007’s PAX included Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, as well as others such as Ubisoft, NCSoft
NCsoft
NCsoft is a South Korea-based online video game company, which has published massively multiplayer online role-playing games including Lineage, City of Heroes, Wildstar, Exteel, Guild Wars and Aion.-History:...
, THQ
THQ
THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...
, Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, Namco-Bandai, Vivendi
Vivendi
Vivendi SA is a French international media conglomerate with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications, the Internet, and video games. It is headquartered in Paris.- History :...
, Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
and 45 other game publishers and developers. The 2007 keynote speech was delivered by Wil Wheaton
Wil Wheaton
Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers...
.
Attendance was reported at 39,000. For the final round of the Omegathon, Ryan "Accalon" Zack and Ben "MNC Dover" Gray competed on never before seen levels of Halo 3
Halo 3
Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the Halo franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2...
. Accalon won the grand prize, $5000 and a trip to the Tokyo Game Show
Tokyo Game Show
The , commonly known as TGS, is a video game expo / convention held annually in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is presented by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association and the Nikkei Business Publications, Inc...
.
While the convention was housed on three of the floors of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Washington State Convention and Trade Center
The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center located next to and over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. Planning for its construction began in 1982; construction began in 1985, and the center opened on June 18, 1988. An expansion that doubled...
, the exhibition hall was certainly a busy place, featuring educational, video game and tabletop exhibitors, as well as retailers. The layout of the exhibition hall allowed visitors to peruse through a variety of displays, offering places where they could win their weight in Ramen noodles or enter the World's Smallest Dungeon, as hosted by Technomancer Press.
PAX 2008
On October 26, 2007, Penny-Arcade Inc. announced PAX 2008. PAX '08 was again held at the Washington State Convention and Trade CenterWashington State Convention and Trade Center
The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center located next to and over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. Planning for its construction began in 1982; construction began in 1985, and the center opened on June 18, 1988. An expansion that doubled...
, and covered the weekend of August 29–31. The exhibition hall space was doubled from that of 2007, and tabletop gaming and an additional panel room was located in the Pike Street Annex of the convention center, the first time this space has been used for PAX. Also new for 2008 was the "PAX 10", a judged selection of self-submitted independent games on which attendees voted for a favorite. PAX 10 selections include Chronotron
Chronotron
Chronotron is a flash video game developed by Scarybug Games.Chronotron launched on the Kongregate website in May 2008.It is notable for having been selected as one of ten games in the PAX 10 2008 out of over eighty entries....
, the Maw
The Maw (video game)
The Maw received above average ratings from critics. It currently averages 75 out of 100 on Metacritic for both the Xbox 360 and PC versions. GameRankings reports similar scores of 76.06% for the Xbox 360 and 73.33% for the PC. Accolades came from outlets such as Games Radar and GamePro with...
, and Schizoid
Schizoid (video game)
Schizoid is an action game which focuses on teamwork. Players must co-operate to protect each other from barrages of glowing enemies. The title was developed by Torpex Games and launched on Xbox Live Arcade on July 9, 2008 for 800 Microsoft Points....
. To account for crowds, one empty exhibition room was explicitly reserved for the purpose of holding queues for the popular events in the main theater and other queues as needed. The 2008 keynote was delivered by Ken Levine.
PAX 2008 came to a close with Fallout and Geko playing Vs. Excitebike, again for $5000 and a trip to the Tokyo Game Show
Tokyo Game Show
The , commonly known as TGS, is a video game expo / convention held annually in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is presented by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association and the Nikkei Business Publications, Inc...
. Geko was victorious.
The pre-show attendance estimate was 45,000, but this was soon feared to be a low guess. The final count of tickets sold was reported as 58,500, including 45,000 pre-registered tickets. Despite the large increase in convention space, overflow still occurred at some events.
PAX 2009
PAX 2009 was held on September 4–6, 2009 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The keynote speaker was Ron GilbertRon Gilbert
Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...
. Musical guests included previous performers Anamanaguchi
Anamanaguchi
Anamanaguchi is a chiptune indie rock band from New York City that "makes loud, fast music with a hacked NES from 1985." The band has four members: lead songwriter Peter Berkman, bassist James DeVito, guitarist Ary Warnaar and drummer Luke Silas. Akin to other chiptune artists, Anamanaguchi creates...
, Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...
, Molly Lewis
Molly Lewis
Molly Lewis is an American Internet musician who is known for her ukulele playing. She plays both covers and original songs. Her original music consists of comedic songs about pop culture topics that trend towards the nerdy. She is currently signed with DFTBA Records through which she released her...
and MC Frontalot
MC Frontalot
Damian Hess , better known by stage name MC Frontalot, is a Brooklyn-based hip hop musician and self-proclaimed "world's 579th greatest rapper". He is best known in nerdcore hip hop and video game culture, for naming the nerdcore subgenre, and performing at Penny Arcades annual Penny Arcade Expo...
, along with first-time PAX appearances by Metroid Metal and Paul & Storm.
For the first time, PAX occupied the entire convention center to accommodate an increase in attendees. Despite the increase in capacity, two days before the start of the show, PAX passes were sold out for the first time. Penny Arcade then announced that no passes would be sold on-site, however circumstances allowed on-site sales of 1,000 extra one-day passes each for Saturday and Sunday. The total attendance of the 2009 convention was 60,750.
After many attendees reported feeling sick, an H1N1
2009 flu pandemic
The 2009 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus , albeit in a new version...
outbreak was later confirmed. At least 100 cases of H1N1
H1N1
'Influenza A virus is a subtype of influenza A virus and was the most common cause of human influenza in 2009. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all influenza-like illness and a small fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused a few percent of...
virus infections were confirmed in attendees after the convention.
PAX East 2010
The first PAX East was held March 26 to March 28, 2010 at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention CenterHynes Convention Center
The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center located in Boston was built in 1988 from a design by architects Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood. It replaced a previous building, also a convention center, regarded as "ungainly." The 1988 design "attempted to relate in scale and materials to its...
in Boston, Massachusetts. A partnership was arranged with Reed Exhibitions to handle the logistics of the expo. This event, first announced in August 2008, was the first Penny Arcade Expo outside Washington state.
On December 23, 2009, Mike Krahulik
Mike Krahulik
Mike Krahulik is the artist for the popular webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder with Jerry Holkins of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. He goes by the online moniker "Jon Gabriel" or "Gabe"...
announced that the number of pre-registrants indicate PAX East Coast may exceed the number of attendees of any previous PAX. It was later announced in January 2010 that tickets for PAX East were close to selling out, and that attendance would most likely be capped as the previous PAX 2009, leaving little-to-no tickets being available at the door for the event. On February 3, 2010 Penny Arcade Expo's business head Robert Khoo updated his Twitter page with word that 3-day badges had sold out for the event.
Later in February 2010 the lineup of exhibitors and panel discussions were announced for the full weekend, along with the announcement of the musical guests planned to perform at the event, such as Anamanaguchi, Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, The Protomen
The Protomen
The Protomen is an American rock band best known for composing original concept albums loosely based on the popular video game series Mega Man...
, the Video Game Orchestra
Video Game Orchestra
Video Game Orchestra is an orchestra that performs contemporary arrangements of video game music with an orchestra, choir, and rock band. The orchestra consists of the regional and international award-winning musicians from over 20 countries...
, and Jonathan Coulton. The keynote speaker was also announced to be Wil Wheaton
Wil Wheaton
Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers...
, who had previously given the keynote at PAX Prime 2007.
The final attendance count was revealed to be 52,290 attendees for the full weekend of PAX East. Plans have been confirmed to use the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is the largest exhibition center in the Northeast United States, with some 516,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space. It is located on Summer Street near the South Boston waterfront, Boston's World Trade Center, and across the harbor from Logan...
(BCEC) for future PAX East conventions, likely due to complaints of overcrowding and cramped event halls at the much smaller Hynes Convention Center. Penny Arcade has signed an agreement to keep the show in Boston through 2013.
PAX Prime 2010
PAX Prime 2010 was held from September 3–5, and took place at the Washington State Convention Center for the fourth time. Musical guests included Anamanaguchi, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Metroid Metal, The Minibosses, Paul and Storm, Martin O'Donnell, and The Protomen. For the first time since occupying the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, PAX 2010 included events at offsite locations. Instead of occupying an exposition hall at the Center, the keynote speech, large panels, and concerts were held down the street at Seattle's Benaroya HallBenaroya Hall
Benaroya Hall is the home of the Seattle Symphony in Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It features two auditoria, the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, a 2500-seat performance venue, as well as the Nordstrom Recital Hall, which seats roughly 500...
, normally the venue for the Seattle Symphony
Seattle Symphony
The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra's season runs from September through July, and serves as the pit orchestra for most productions of the Seattle Opera in addition to its own concerts...
and other fine performance arts. The keynote was given by Warren Spector
Warren Spector
Warren Spector is a role-playing game designer and a video game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline L. Spector...
. The newly renovated Pike St. Annex (since renamed to The Conference Center) will again be used (as it was in 2007), as well as registration and one panel room located at the nearby Sheraton. These changes have allowed PAX 2010's expo hall to double in size over 2009. Attendance for this year's PAX was reported at 67,600, compared to PAX 2009's 60,750.
Notable games:
- Star Wars: The Old RepublicStar Wars: The Old RepublicStar Wars: The Old Republic, abbreviated as TOR or SWTOR, is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game based in the Star Wars universe. Currently in development by BioWare Austin and a supplemental team at BioWare Edmonton, the game was first announced on October 21, 2008, at an...
- Duke Nukem ForeverDuke Nukem ForeverDuke Nukem Forever is a 2011 first-person shooter video game for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 developed by 3D Realms and Triptych Games and finished by Gearbox Software and Piranha Games...
- Portal 2Portal 2Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
- League of LegendsLeague of LegendsThe BetFred League of Legends was a darts tournament featuring some of the legends of the game of darts which commenced in May 2008. The tournament is broadcast on Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom....
- Guild Wars 2Guild Wars 2Guild Wars 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in development by ArenaNet. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting the Elder Dragons, a Lovecraftian species that has seized control of Tyria in...
- Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two WorldsMarvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worldsis a crossover fighting game developed by Capcom. It features Capcom's own characters and characters from American comic book company Marvel Comics. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel vs...
- Mortal Kombat
- Sonic ColorsSonic Colorsis a 2010 platforming game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It was first announced on May 26, 2010, in a press release by Sega for Italy, and it included a teaser trailer...
- Epic MickeyEpic MickeyEpic Mickey is a 2010 Mickey Mouse action-adventure platforming video game designed by Warren Spector and developed by Junction Point Studios for the Wii console...
- Halo: ReachHalo: ReachHalo: Reach is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 console. Reach was released in North America, Australia, and Europe on September 14, 2010. The game takes place in the year 2552, where humanity is locked in a war with the...
Notable hardware:
- Microsoft Kinect
PAX East 2011
The second annual PAX East was held March 11 to March 13, 2011. Contrary to the previous year, it wasn't held at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention CenterHynes Convention Center
The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center located in Boston was built in 1988 from a design by architects Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood. It replaced a previous building, also a convention center, regarded as "ungainly." The 1988 design "attempted to relate in scale and materials to its...
, but in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center
The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is the largest exhibition center in the Northeast United States, with some 516,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space. It is located on Summer Street near the South Boston waterfront, Boston's World Trade Center, and across the harbor from Logan...
, or BCEC, in Boston, Massachusetts. The BCEC boasts a total area of 516000 square feet (47,938 m²), over the Hynes' 193000 square feet (17,930.3 m²) [289100 square feet (26,858.3 m²) including the theater and meeting rooms].
The year's musical guests included Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Metroid Metal, Paul and Storm, The Protomen, and the Video Game Orchestra (VGO). The keynote speaker was Jane McGonigal
Jane McGonigal
Jane McGonigal, Ph.D. is a game designer, games researcher, and author, specializing in pervasive gaming and alternate reality games ....
.